Château La Courolle Montagne-Saint-Émilion 2020.

Château La Courolle Montagne-Saint-Émilion 2020

13.5% abv - which is a little lighter in body than a lot of Bordeaux wines - med body in this case. And retails around £20 (but we had it in a restaurant in Edinburgh, during the Edinburgh fringe festival, and paid around £55).

Overall - it's a lovely juicy red Bordeaux, which has plenty of additional years ageing in it, but fine to drink now, with some tertiary notes coming through and evidence of bottle and oak ageing. 🙌❤️

A little bit of the background into this wine first. Château La Courolle is located on the Montagne St-Émilion (right bank) plateau, which has a clay-limestone soil that’s pretty much like what you’d find in St-Émilion itself.

The vineyard covers 14 hectares and is densely planted with about 6,000 vines per hectare.

This is an organic wine, Merlot dominant on the right bank, but a decent amount of other grape varieties 🍇 as expected: 70% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 15% Cabernet Franc.

Montagne St-Émilion is right in the heart of the Saint-Émilion region, where the Guimberteau family, who own Château La Courolle, have been making wine here for over a century. Rodolphe Guimberteau is the fourth generation running the show now.

👃On the nose you are hit with some of those tertiary notes of tobacco and spice, and then the red fruits which are still incredibly juicy and ripe, and not yet in the dried realm being so young for a Bordeaux. Think of red plums, cherries 🍒, and strawberries 🍓.

👅 On the palate it's got a beautiful silky smooth mouth feel and the tannins are smooth too. You get the same as on the nose, without the tobacco taste. And you get the additional cassis type flavouring, cherry accentuated further, with damson flavours and the acknowledgement of oak ageing on the palete.

For the price we felt this was a pretty good Bordeaux, and entry point into all the great qualities and characteristics of the Saint-Émilion style. Overall I'd say this didn't knock my socks off, but I was very happy with our choice and with the steak just fabulous, and great value for money!